(8) Interactivity #4

Lesson Plan Analysis Map

I chose this lesson plan because I have become to value lesson plans and pedagogical practices that are cross-curricular.  I felt this lesson plan would be a perfect fit for a fifth grade classroom that was also studying the New World Exploration in their Social Studies classrooms.  By creating links between educators and disciplines, I believe students will be motivated and appreciate the real life links between content areas that they will begin to understand during a lesson like this.  I also am interested in incorporating the aspect of a research project into earlier grades so students are better prepared for the coming years and high school.  This lesson plan is the perfect introduction to dissecting material to reveal the relevant and important information. 

          I thought that lesson plan was fairly comprehensive but lacked in teaching strategy variety.  The original author was successful in creating a cohesive and smooth transition through the process of research but I felt there was not enough emphasis placed on gaining the knowledge and group work. The lesson plan was designed in a way that allowed students to get away with just copy and pasting the information instead of synthesizing the information into a research project.  I also thought that the lesson relied too much on individual work and I wanted to incorporate some type of group work into the assessment methods.  I also thought that with student access to their individual computers, there are probably more inventive and exciting modes of assessment rather than an individual summary.  I chose to incorporate the Glogster because the interactive web based creativity is often very exciting for students.  This program is just another way teachers are able to relate to their students interest while teaching necessary content.